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A Spiritual Journey

2/17/2013

Contemplative Prayer had been described as unworded prayer.

In The Cloud of Unknowing, written in the fourteenth century perhaps by an English monk, the unknown author wrote about the lack of words in contemplative prayer.

"A man may know completely and ponder thoroughtly every created thing and its works, yes, and God's works, too, but not God himself. Thought cannot comprehend God. And so, I prefer to abandon all I can know, choosing rather to love him whom I cannot know. Though we cannot know him we can love him. By love he may be touched and embraced, never by thought."

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William Johnston, ed., The Cloud of Unknowing (New York: Image Books, 1973) ch 6, p. 54.

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A Spiritual Journey . . .

2/16/2013

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Contemplative Prayer in Scripture and as Described by the Saints and Mystical Writers
                              Unworded Prayer

    The saints have pointed out the scriptures that best describe the experience of contemplative prayer. "Be still and acknowledge that I am God, supreme over nations, supreme over the world" (Psalm 46:10). Contemplative prayer is a gaze of faith, fixed upon Jesus. As a parishioner told the Cure of Ars, "I look at Him and He looks at me" (Catechism of the Catholic Church #2715).

    Contemplative prayer could last a moment - it could last several hours. A person realized that he has experienced it afterwards, as he realizes that he has changed. The psalms sing to his soul: "My whole being yearns and pines for Yahweh's courts, My heart and my body cry out for joy to the living God" (Psalm 84:2). He realizes that he is in love with God!

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See Thomas Dubay, Fire Within (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1989) page 65-69. Also see Elizabeth of the Trinity, Heaven in Faith and also Last Retreat, for an explanation of scripture as it relates to contemplative prayer. These can be found in Elizabeth of the Trinity, The Complete Works, trans. Aletheia Kane, O.C.D., Volume One (Washington DC: ICS Publications, 1984) all pages.

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A Spiritual Journey . . .

2/15/2013

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The Fruit of Contemplative Prayer is a greater desire to know God, our Beloved.

Many people think that contemplative prayer will just come to them, and sometimes it does, for this is a gift from God. But a person must remember that he is on a spiritual journey, and with all grace, he must respond to it. Even after one experiences contemplative prayer, he must go back to meditation to purify himself. In modern days, this is called a daily examination of conscience. The fruit of contemplation is a greater desire to know the Beloved. One returns to Scripture, and all that was mentioned above under meditation. One continues vocal prayers and participation in liturgical prayers expecially the Mass.

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A Spiritual Journey . . .

2/14/2013

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Contemplative Prayer - is when God embraces our heart!

St. Bonaventure writes that one should consider that through this love comes all indulgences given by God -all good abundance - and through this love is possessed the desirable memory of His Presence - then He embraces a person's heart! This is the consummation of the Soul! The perfect step! The Unitive Step!

What an individual experiences is not the object of his imagination, for one cannot attribute to Him neither time, neither face, neither shadow, neither measurement, neither limit; for He cannot be represented - but it is all desirable . . . Last, it cannot be entered in the rational order, and it cannot be defined, neither proved, neither appreciated, neither understood, neither grasped, for His intelligibility exceeds all intelligence. . . . but He is all desirable.

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Bonaventure, La Triple Voie, 1269-1270. Available from the internet. http://jesusmarie.free.fr/bonaventrue_la_triple_voie.html
Translation my own. Third Section, Consummation of the Soul, XVII.5

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A Spiritual Journey . . .

2/12/2013

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Contemplative Prayer - Doing everything for God with love and charity

John Welch (1939-), a Catholic priest of the Carmelite Order, and chair of Carmelite Studies at the Washington Theological Union, in his book, The Carmelite Way, An Ancient Path for Today's Pilgrim, says that St. Teresa of Avila warns that in the third mansion, a person could become too content to leave this place. But the purpose of prayer, Teresa reminds people, is conformity with God's will, not consolations. If one wants to do what God wants, this desire is expressed in the way a person lives his life [68].

St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) in The Ascent of Mount Carmel, describes the purgations that a soul experiences as it passes through the various levels on its way toward the divine light of perfect union with God. These purgations are purifications of the soul. These purgations also fit in with St. Bonaventure's descriptions of the Purgative and Illuminative way. On the journey, the person must first deprive himself of his desire for worldly possessions, as Bonaventure describes - the best candy, the softest clothes, and the most expensive apartment. John calls this mortification of the appetites. Since the senses are deprived of such things, it is like a night to them. As a person travels on this road, he goes by faith, and to the intellect, faith is like a dark night. He is traveling toward God, who is also like a dark night to a soul in this life [73-74, Ch 1, par 1-6].

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John Welch, O. Carm., The Carmelite Way, An Ancient Path for Today's Pilgrim (New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1996).
John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, in the Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh, and Otilio Rodriguez (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1973).

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A Spiritual Journey . . .

2/10/2013

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Preparing for Contemplative Prayer - Meditation - the Purgative & Illuminative Way

       During your time of meditation, a person must seek out malice, says St. Bonaventure. Its roots are anger, envy and luke-warmness. Anger is manifested by gestures and speech, envy by sadness of the good of another, and luke-warmness by unfavorable suspicions, and by blasphemous thoughts.

          Bonaventure teaches that by looking over these things, a person must always keep in mind his death and that it is imminent. He must always keep in mind that the eyes of the Judge are fixed upon him, and also that the Blood of the Cross has been spilled for him. After examining his conscience in his meditation, he must follow through with correction by acquiring the virtues of generosity, austerity and gentleness. Bonaventrue quotes the prophet Micah (6:8): "I have shown you, man, what is good, and this is required of the Lord, only this, to do what is right, to love mercifulness, and to walk humbly with your God."

      In the Illuminative Way, Bonaventrue says, a person thinks about: First, his debt to God - what a price Jesus paid for him - and the sins that God has forgiven and the punishment he merits. Second, he thinks about the favors that God has granted him. And finally he thinks about the promised rewards.
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Saint Bonaventure, La Triple Voie, 1269-1270. Available in French from the internet. http://jesusmarie.free.fr/bonaventure_la_triple_voie.html , (Accessed 12/18/08). Translation my own.

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A Spiritual Journey

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Kathy

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